The doctor says I’m OK

Or as OK as I ever was, anyway. And he took off the Steri-Strips, so I no longer look like I’m auditioning for a part in Young Frankenstein. So much for my Hollywood career!

There was an amusing moment when he started to look through the X-rays and CT scans I’d been given in Montréal — he couldn’t figure out why there was a CT scan of my chest, and I sure didn’t remember having one done. After a moment, he looked at the name on the sheet, and it wasn’t mine (even misspelled, as the hospital folks tended to do). Nor were any of the next four sheets mine. Finally, he got to a sheet with “David Signer” and pictures of a brain on it and he was pleased — so was I, because I was beginning to wonder if I really did have a brain!

In View From The Heart, Al Hawkins mentions post-concussion syndrome as something I need to watch out for as an after-effect of my ice-skating adventure. So far, I haven’t noticed any of the symptoms — though I must admit to having been somewhat depressed when I came to work and found 500 e-mails waiting for me, most of which actually required work on my part to dispose of. Of course, this is how I normally feel when I come back from a vacation without e-mail, so I don’t think it counts. But I appreciate the pointer and the concern; it’s better to know what might happen than to be completely unaware.

Pet Thoughts

We lived a long time without any pets, but we acquired a guppy at Shir Hadash’s Purim Carnival. Guppies don’t have the staying power of some other pets, so I’m thinking that we might need to get a new pet sometime soon.

This afternoon, Diane and I walked over to a new home development near here, Heritage Grove. The builder had a long struggle with the town to get the development approved (it’s on land which used to be an orchard), and once they finally succeeded, they were unable to build as many homes as they’d wanted. So they decided to build expensive homes, just in time for real estate prices here in Los Gatos to skyrocket. When they first opened up the development, they were quoting prices “from the 900,000’s”, but that’s ancient history (at least six months old). They released five homes yesterday, all of which sold immediately, at prices from 1.8 to 2.4 million dollars. These houses are ok — 2900 to 3700 square feet, but they’re not on enormous lots (and there’s no privacy — the back yards are easily viewed from the neighboring home’s second floor), and our recently remodelled kitchen has better cabinetry than these houses do. The smallest house is nearly 50% larger than our house, but somehow the bedrooms felt cramped. Fortunately, we were only looking for decorating ideas rather than actually being in the market, but it was still frightening to see these prices for houses in our extended neighborhood.

Diane says my eye hasn’t changed enough to warrant posting a new picture. I guess that’s good…. But I have posted Montréal pictures and updated the narrative for June 6th. I think that finishes that particular trip.

Happy Birthday, Allison!